Death toll reaches 485 in India

But officials insist worst violence over

BOMBAY, India — The death toll from four days of violence in western India climbed to 485 Sunday, but officials said they were confident the worst violence had ended.

K. Nityanandam, the home secretary of the state of Gujarat, said the number of deaths would probably continue to increase as authorities search villages across the state.

But in the past 12 hours there have been no major disturbances, he said.

"The major phase of the violence is over," Nityanandam said. "The pattern of life seems to be limping back to normal."

The relative quiet followed another spasm of sectarian conflict Saturday in Gujarat, as Hindus stormed the village of Sardarpura and set houses and shops ablaze by lighting fires near cooking gas containers.

Twenty-seven Muslims died, police officials said.

In the town of Vadodra, at least seven Muslims were burned to death inside the bakery where they worked. In Himmatnagar, police fired on Hindu and Muslim groups fighting each other with guns and knives, resulting in 11 deaths, police said.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee appealed for peace and restraint in a TV address Saturday. It was the second appeal in four days from Vajpayee.

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, India's longtime rival and a Muslim-majority country, called for better protection of India's Muslim minority.

The violence started Wednesday, after Muslims attacked a train of Hindus returning home from a religious ceremony at the site of a controversial planned temple in the town of Ayodhya in northeast India. The train was set on fire, and 58 people died.

The disputed temple is planned on the site of a 16th Century mosque that was razed by Hindus in 1992.

In retaliation for the train attack, Hindus began looting and setting fires in Muslim areas of Gujarat, mostly in the capital, Ahmadabad. In the worst single act of violence, they surrounded a housing complex, setting it on fire and killing 58 people.

At first, witnesses accused police of standing by and watching. But at some point, police were told to shoot rioters who refused to disperse. As of Sunday morning, police had shot and killed 73 people.

Soldiers also have fanned out in the cities of Ahmadabad, Baroda and Rajkot with orders to shoot rioters on sight. A curfew was imposed in 37 towns across the state.

The state police put the death toll at 383, but the government has a history of underreporting death tolls in calamities.

More than 1,500 people have been arrested in the rioting, the worst in India in 10 years. Unlike the disturbances in 1992--also over the disputed temple in Ayodhya--the violence has not spread nationwide but has been contained in the state of Gujarat.

About 12 percent of India's 1 billion people are Muslims, while 82 percent are Hindu.

Although India is an officially secular nation, religious tension between Hindus and Muslims has existed for centuries.